The visiting Texas Rangers will vie for a sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon in the finale of a four-game series.
The Rangers bolted out to a six-run lead before posting a 7-4 victory on Saturday. It followed a familiar pattern of the first two games when they took the early lead and held on.
“This is who we can be on a regular basis,” said Rangers first baseman Jake Burger, who had three hits and two RBIs on Saturday. “I think that builds confidence for this entire group.”
The Rangers have started a 10-game road trip with a 4-2 record.
Texas is scheduled to start right-hander Kumar Rocker (2-6, 4.14 ERA) on Sunday afternoon. He is 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA in one career start against Toronto, which came in 2024.
Toronto is slated to turn to right-hander Shane Bieber (0-0, 9.82), who is 0-1 with a 1.74 ERA in two career starts against the Rangers. He has not faced them since 2022, however.
“It’s frustrating,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after his team’s losing skid extended to five games. “But I think it gets more frustrating if you allow it to fester, right? So it starts with (Bieber) tomorrow, it starts with the lineup having a good approach against Rocker.”
Toronto is 1-5 on a 10-game homestand, which was supposed to be a springboard to vault above .500 and solidify a wild-card spot.
The Rangers were without some key players Saturday. Their top two relievers, Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz, both had been used in the first two games of the series and were not available on Saturday. Center fielder Wyatt Langford was a late scratch because of a tight left hamstring.
“It was literally right before the game,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “Our trainer came in and let me know. I talked to Wyatt, but I didn’t want to risk it. He said he could probably go. That’s all I needed to hear, ‘probably.’ So I pulled him out.”
Cal Quantrill, a native of nearby Port Hope, Ontario, and the son of former Blue Jays pitcher Paul Quantrill, made his second spot start to help a depleted rotation. He pitched four strong scoreless innings.
“He was awesome,” Schumaker said. “We were hoping for three innings, and he gave us four really quality innings. He did more than enough for us to win a game, and it really set us up for the rest of the game.”
Peyton Gray pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win and Tyler Alexander picked up his third save with a scoreless ninth.
“These kinds of wins are the wins that we just haven’t had as much luck with this year,” Quantrill said. “Hopefully, we can get on a little bit of a roll here and win some of these 50-50 games.”
The Blue Jays did some roster shuffling before the game on Saturday.
Sean Keys was promoted from Triple-A Buffalo and played at first base with the struggling Vladimir Guerrero Jr., used as the designated hitter..
Keys was 1-for-4 in his major league debut and singled in the sixth for his first hit.
Infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider was optioned to Triple-A to make room for him.
“We want him to get going consistently offensively,” John Schneider said.
Outfielder Yohendrick Pinango belted a two-run homer on Saturday after being recalled from Buffalo. He replaced Jesus Sanchez, who was put on the injured list after he sprained his right ankle while making a catch at the wall in the seventh inning on Friday.
–Field Level Media
